(WSBT) The battle over revenue from the Four Winds Casino may go to court. The New Buffalo City Council voted Wednesday to allow city attorneys to file a lawsuit, if it becomes necessary.

The city was left off the revenue sharing board that divides up the money local governments will get. The final seat on the board went to the New Buffalo Schools.

Estimates are the casino could pay out more than $4 million next year.

Forty-five percent of that will go to township governments, the county and schools. It's to make up for the money they will no longer be getting in property taxes.

Another 10 percent goes to the county for administration. And the final 45 percent is for public safety — to pay for the increased enforcement the casino requires.

New Buffalo has argued it would feel the most impact from the casino.

New Buffalo officials say the casino could cost them millions in infrastructure improvements and public safety. That spending is a big reason why they want to be on the board.

“If those two members would have done the right thing and would have went by what was in this agreement, we wouldn't be here today,” said Jack Kennedy, a city councilman.

New Buffalo city officials say the board came up with bylaws about how the revenue would be divided up before the third member of the board was appointed. They say that's a violation of the compact between the state of Michigan and the Pokagon Band.

“What we're talking about is two sitting members, proposing bylaws that handle more than just selecting than the third member,” said Brian Knotek, an attorney. “They deal with distribution of revenues, they deal with the way the local revenue sharing board is going to operate. Well, none of those decisions can be made at this point.”

The city's first choice is to continue negotiations, but if that fails, a lawsuit will be filed.

The city's attorneys said any lawsuit would have to be filed soon before the next meeting of the revenue sharing board. Any lawsuit has the potential of holding up any distributions of money to the county, the townships and the schools. But New Buffalo officials say the first payout is not expected to be distributed until late this year, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue.